Home Made Ink (Mostly Ig) & **tips And Tricks**

[Mangrove]

De materia medica (1st C. AD), translation by Lily Y. Beck.

 

V, 162 μελαν, Black ink

1. The black ink with which we write is made from soot collected from torches. Three oungiai of soot are combined with one oungia of gum. It is also made from soot of pine resin and from the painter's soot mentioned above. You must take one mna of soot, one and one-half litra gum, one and one-half litra bulls' hide glue, and one and one-half litra copper sulfate.

 

Oungia = ουγχια = 27.288 g

Litra = λιτρα = 327.45 g

[ZeissIkon]

Oungia = ουγχια = 27.288 g

Litra = λιτρα = 327.45 g

 

Oungia appears to be the unit that becamse the apothecary ounce.

Litra is then an apothecary pound.

[ZeissIkon]

Another follow-up on my homemade iron tannate ink. As reported last time, I was planning to try to modify the flow of the ink to make it wet enough for a fountain pen. After some failed attempts, I disassembled my Osmiroid 75 again, cleared out the feed channels and scraped some "junk" off the feed surface that contacts the nib (probably inadequately cleaned residue from a previous experiment with a carbon particle ink that turned not not to be completely FP safe), and tried it again, and it does in fact write successfully in a fountain pen, though it's still a little on the dry side and doesn't coat the ink window the way commercial inks do (possibly need to add some flow modifier now that I have the ink "wet" enough).

 

Well, I spoke too soon -- the next time I went to use the pen, just a few hours later (to write in my journal), it wouldn't start. I suspect this ink, even after being put through a coffee filter, has too many large particles to work well in a fountain pen; I'm going to discontinue the attempts, flush and clean the Osmiroid (again), and use the remainder of the unmodified ink with my dip pen, in which it works beautifully. Must get an inkwell -- looking for shot glasses didn't turn out well, best deal I could find was $6 for six, not much per glass, but I don't really want or need six (and they had tiny bases, a little too tippy for ink). I've seen inkwells for under $25, which means I can probably find one for half that if I search carefully. That's for next payday...

[Chthulhu]

Look also at cast or cut glass candleholders? :-)

[ZeissIkon]

Look also at cast or cut glass candleholders? :-)

 

A cut glass candle holder would be better than the shot glasses I've seen, but if I can get a real inkwell with a lid for $10 or $15, I'd rather do that; especially if the lid looks tight enough I might be able to leave the ink in the well from one day to the next rather than have to fill and empty it for each writing session.

[ToasterPastry]

This thread has really taken off. I wish the homemade inks part could be separated from the mixed inks.

 

ZeissIkon: I don't want to take too much credit for this, but I was wondering if my 'sun-ink' recipe posted awhile back had provided you any inspiration. It looks like you have really developed it. I have not tried to put my ink into a fountain pen as I'm certain that the Arabic gum would 'gum' up the works.

 

PGary: I'm wondering what dyes you use to create your ink. Are these standard vegetable dyes or analine commercial dyes (fabric dyes)? I have been tempted to use Rit (clothing) dye and start with that as a base, adding ferrous sulfate and gallic acid.

[Chthulhu]

Something for ink storage: the local Cost Plus World Market store has a lot of small (2-3 oz) clear glass jars with gasketed porcelain or glass tops that use the wire toggle clamp system to hold them tightly closed. They're USD0.99 for the ones with porcelain (white or red) tops and USD1.99 for the ones with glass tops. I tried to get a photo with my cell phone, but it didn't come out well enough to bother with.

 

Zeissikon, one of these set into a base of some sort would make a great inkwell; with several of them, you could swap inks as often as you wished with the same base, maybe a candle holder? <G>

[mooshi]

This thread has really taken off. I wish the homemade inks part could be separated from the mixed inks.

 

ZeissIkon: I don't want to take too much credit for this, but I was wondering if my 'sun-ink' recipe posted awhile back had provided you any inspiration. It looks like you have really developed it. I have not tried to put my ink into a fountain pen as I'm certain that the Arabic gum would 'gum' up the works.

 

PGary: I'm wondering what dyes you use to create your ink. Are these standard vegetable dyes or analine commercial dyes (fabric dyes)? I have been tempted to use Rit (clothing) dye and start with that as a base, adding ferrous sulfate and gallic acid.

 

Hmm... I'm going to have to look up that "sun-ink" recipe. Or perhaps link?

 

I had originally made this thread a separate one, specifically for the discussion of homemade inks. I had my reasons, but Mod decided to close it because it was about ink "recipes," then after some consideration, merge them together. At least it still exists.

 

-- Moo

[ZeissIkon]

ZeissIkon: I don't want to take too much credit for this, but I was wondering if my 'sun-ink' recipe posted awhile back had provided you any inspiration. It looks like you have really developed it. I have not tried to put my ink into a fountain pen as I'm certain that the Arabic gum would 'gum' up the works.

 

PGary: I'm wondering what dyes you use to create your ink. Are these standard vegetable dyes or analine commercial dyes (fabric dyes)? I have been tempted to use Rit (clothing) dye and start with that as a base, adding ferrous sulfate and gallic acid.

 

I'd had the idea to use tea as a base for iron-gall ink, but your comment about sun ink catalyzed it for me, especially in terms of realizing I didn't have to have pre-reacted ferrous sulfate, but could "make it as I go", so to speak, by using a little sulfuric acid as a catalyst to bring the iron into solution where it could react with the gallic acid formed by breakdown of tannin. After doing it, and looking at what it did in a fountain pen and in the threads of the bottle it's stored in, I think I'd recommend against using Rit or other fabric dyes; there's something else in those dyes besides colorant and salt, I think, and whatever it is it makes a flaky substance with almost no color when it dries in the threads of the bottle cap. Wouldn't take much drying for that stuff to clog up a feed or slit, and while I was eventually able to get my Osmiroid to restart by priming it with the piston, it was much dryer than when I first filled it; I'll be flushing it and disassembling for a complete cleaning this evening. I'm not certain whether these issues are from the Rit or from the dish soap I added trying to make the ink wet enough to flow (it still doesn't flow as well as commercial ink, even immediately after filling a freshly cleaned pen), but I suspect it's the Rit, something that's not on the label (it's not a food product, so the label or even MSDS need only include stuff that's present in "significant" quantities relative to toxicity, flammability, irritation, etc.), since even the original ink that works so well in a dip pen didn't flow as well as plain water in the fountain pen.

 

Several chemical companies sell pure aniline dye concentrates; that'd be the way to go (methylene blue is very easily available and would make a nice blue-black, if it'll stay blue in the high-salt, acidic ink).

[Gran]

ZI, I got several nice shot glasses at a church thrift store for 25 cents a piece.

[ZeissIkon]

ZI, I got several nice shot glasses at a church thrift store for 25 cents a piece.

 

Aha! There's a Goodwill halfway between home and work, a small church thrift a couple miles down the road, and a really big "public charity" thrift a bit further down -- didn't even occur to me to look there (and they're more likely to have the old bar style glasses with the heavy bases anyway). Of course, I'll have to have cash; none of them will take my debit card (well, the big one might). Funny how quickly I've gotten out of the habit of carrying cash when a store that doesn't take debit is a rarity...

[OtterNZ]

Funny how quickly I've gotten out of the habit of carrying cash when a store that doesn't take debit is a rarity...

 

Debit (EFTPOS) cards have been the norm here for the last 15 years. I've barely ever needed cash in my life time.

 

Wait, off topic. I've tried the 5 drops of Quink blue and 1 drop of quink black. It looks nice, but I'm worried about how long it will last.

[pgary]

Hello ToasterPastry,

 

Thank you for your comment!

I wrote about the dye reagents that I used to make my homemade inks in this topic's #224.

 

1. Direct Blue 1 (Chicago Sky Blue 6B, Pontamine Sky Blue 6B)

2. Acid Blue 92 (Acid Blue A, Anazolene Sodium)

3. Food Blue No.1 (Brilliant Blue FCF)

4. Food green No.3 (Fast green FCF)

5. Food Yellow No.4 (Tartrazine)

6. Food Yellow No.5 (Sunset Yellow FCF)

7. Food Red No.2 (Amaranth)

8. Food Red No.40 (Allura Red AC)

9. Food Red No.102 (New Coccine)

10. Food Red No.106 (Acid Red)

 

I mixed above ten kinds of dyes and can make a wide variety of colors.

Above ink's No. 1 and 2 are used in the manufacture of inks (printer or ballpoint pen) in Japan.

Especially, direct blue 1 was used for Parker blueblack ink's old recipe.

No. 3 to 10 inks are used as food dye in Japan.

 

Best regards,

 

This thread has really taken off. I wish the homemade inks part could be separated from the mixed inks.

 

ZeissIkon: I don't want to take too much credit for this, but I was wondering if my 'sun-ink' recipe posted awhile back had provided you any inspiration. It looks like you have really developed it. I have not tried to put my ink into a fountain pen as I'm certain that the Arabic gum would 'gum' up the works.

 

PGary: I'm wondering what dyes you use to create your ink. Are these standard vegetable dyes or analine commercial dyes (fabric dyes)? I have been tempted to use Rit (clothing) dye and start with that as a base, adding ferrous sulfate and gallic acid.

[Mangrove]

Worrell, W. H. 1947. Isis Vol. 37: Note on modern Coptic inks.

 

"In the Spring of 1936 Bistauros Wagim, a peasant of Zenia near Luxor, described to the present writer the preparation of the inks which he used in making such manuscripts. [...] Bistauros takes an ounce of the pigment, two ounces of gum (samg) and half a pound of water, and boils this."

[ZeissIkon]

Long term update on my ink making experiment. Last night, I baked some cornstarch into dextrin (two hours at 400º F, that'd be 205º C, with turning/stirring every 20 minutes to prevent scorching), and I'm now adding it, a little at a time, to the ink, trying to see how much is needed to get the ink to settle less, or at least less rapidly.

 

This was prompted by trying the ink in an improvised ink well (a glass candle holder I got at a local thrift store). After stirring up the ink, as I've been doing before each use, and transferring a quantity to the inkwell via disposable plastic pipette (which I've been reusing for several years for photographic chemicals and the like), and writing a couple pages with it, the ink in the well had left a black residue on the bottom: the iron gallate pigment that's supposed to be suspended in the ink, making it write black. The fact it settled out this badly in a few minutes finally convinced me that my ink needs some gum to keep this stuff in suspension -- and dextrin is a gum that's easily and cheaply made at home (as opposed to spending twelve bucks on a tiny bottle of liquid gum arabic).

 

This is going to take some time to quantify; so far, I've put in two teaspoons of the dextrin powder, and I'll try the ink in the well tonight. If it's better, but not quite there, I'll add more dextrin. If the ink becomes too viscous before I conquer the settling, I'll add some of the batch I separated off and tried to make wet enough to flow in a "tester" fountain pen (I now see what cause the pen to clog after it sat a few hours -- this same stuff that's settling out); that stuff is way too wet for a dip pen, and a small percentage should restore flow if the gum, well, gums things up too much. When I'm done, I should know how much dextrin and how much wetting agent is needed -- though at the rate I'm using this ink, it might well be a year before I need to make another batch.

[Mangrove]

Original in "Encyclopedie methodique. Arts et metiers mecaniques [...]. A Paris [...] M. DCC. LXXXIII [1783]. Translation by translate.google.com and me.

 

Encre rouge.

Il faut avoir quatre onces de bois de Bresil, un sou d'alun de Rome, un sou ou six liards de gomme arabique, & deux sous de sucre candi: on fera d'abord bouillir les quatre onces de bois de Bresil dans une pinte d'eau, pendant un bon quart d'heure; puis on y ajoutera le reste des drogues que l'on laissera bouillir encore un quart d'heure.

 

Red ink

Take four ounces of Brazilwood, a penny of Roman alum, a penny or six liards gum arabic, and two in sugar candy: we will first boil four ounces of Brazilwood in a pint water for a quarter of an hour, then add the remaining substances that they boil for fifteen minutes.

[pharmacist]

Hi everybody,

 

I am new on this forum and one of the forum members (pgary) knows me from youtube.com for my iron gall ink video.

 

Here is my recipe for iron gall ink, which works well in fountain pens. However try this in a cheap fountain pen first and I do not take any responsibility if this ink will damage your expensive fountain pen(s).

 

10 ml Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (dye component, just to make the wrting visible when immediately written)

5 ml glycerin

1-2 ml isopropyl alcohol (to enhance the penetration degree of the ink)

1 gram gallic acid

1.5 gram ferrous sulphate hydrated(Fe2SO4.7H2O)

200 milligrams of salicylic acid (preservative)

1 ml hydrochloric acid 25 % (be careful: very corrosive)

distilled water up to 100 ml

 

Dissolve the gallic and salicylic acid in about 40 ml hot distilled water and add the glycerin. Dissolve the ferrous sulphate in about 40 distilled water and add the hydrochloric acid and add this to the gallic acid solution. Add the Pelikan ink to this and enough distilled water to make up 100 ml. Add 1 or 2 ml isopropanol to enhance the flowing properties of the ink.

Edited June 13, 2012 by saskia_madding

[Warriah]

Hi everybody,

 

I am new on this forum and one of the forum members (pgary) knows me from youtube.com for my iron gall ink video.

 

Here is my recipe for iron gall ink, which works well in fountain pens. However try this in a cheap fountain pen first and I do not take any responsibility if this ink will damage your expensive fountain pen(s).

 

10 ml Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (dye component, just to make the wrting visible when immediately written)

5 ml glycerin

1-2 ml isopropyl alcohol (to enhance the penetration degree of the ink)

1 gram gallic acid

1.5 gram ferrous sulphate hydrated(Fe2SO4.7H2O)

200 milligrams of salicylic acid (preservative)

1 ml hydrochloric acid 25 % (be careful: very corrosive)

distilled water up to 100 ml

 

Dissolve the gallic and salicylic acid in about 40 ml hot distilled water and add the glycerin. Dissolve the ferrous sulphate in about 40 distilled water and add the hydrochloric acid and add this to the gallic acid solution. Add the Pelikan ink to this and enough distilled water to make up 100 ml. Add 1 or 2 ml isopropanol to enhance the flowing properties of the ink.

Wow.. Compared this recipe with my 30% Quink Black + 70% Quink Blue-Black mine seems very ridiculous...

[pgary]

Hello everybody,

 

My homemade iron gall ink will be sold only 40 bottles in Pen Trading in Tokyo (Apr. 24-25 2010).

http://livedoor.2.blogimg.jp/pelikan_1931/imgs/d/5/d59686e7.jpg

 

If you want to wash blot of pens by Iron gall ink, you should use 1% of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) solution.

 

My Japanese blog is http://d.hatena.ne.jp/pgary/

My English blog is http://iron-gallink.blogspot.com/

 

Thank you for your attention.

[mr mobius]

Hi everybody,

 

I am new on this forum and one of the forum members (pgary) knows me from youtube.com for my iron gall ink video.

 

Here is my recipe for iron gall ink, which works well in fountain pens. However try this in a cheap fountain pen first and I do not take any responsibility if this ink will damage your expensive fountain pen(s).

 

10 ml Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (dye component, just to make the wrting visible when immediately written)

5 ml glycerin

1-2 ml isopropyl alcohol (to enhance the penetration degree of the ink)

1 gram gallic acid

1.5 gram ferrous sulphate hydrated(Fe2SO4.7H2O)

200 milligrams of salicylic acid (preservative)

1 ml hydrochloric acid 25 % (be careful: very corrosive)

distilled water up to 100 ml

 

Dissolve the gallic and salicylic acid in about 40 ml hot distilled water and add the glycerin. Dissolve the ferrous sulphate in about 40 distilled water and add the hydrochloric acid and add this to the gallic acid solution. Add the Pelikan ink to this and enough distilled water to make up 100 ml. Add 1 or 2 ml isopropanol to enhance the flowing properties of the ink.

 

 

Then watch the end of your nib melt like plastic..... Im not sure it its just because its early but I found this quite funny... some people got an issue with converters etc... imagine getting all the gear out for this... I dont mind sampling a bit of 1 part this x part that... but Im not getting my bunson burner out from school!

 

:ltcapd: